


Red Stone Rise

by Cenowar



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure, F/M, Romance, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-02
Updated: 2015-07-06
Packaged: 2018-04-07 07:59:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4255566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cenowar/pseuds/Cenowar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the man who thinks he knows everything, an unknown planet with a hidden secret is just too much to resist. But there are reasons our instincts tells us to turn back, aren't there, Doctor? And there are some questions you really don't want to know to the answers to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. White Rabbit

There was something about the console room that Rose had always found relaxing.  
  
Well, maybe not always. The first time she’d stepped in it, its vastness had given her such a surprise that she had nearly thrown up. (That would have made a great impression on the Doctor, she mused later. She could just imagine it.  _“Hello, I’m an alien… Oh. Are you alright?”_ )  
  
Still, it hadn’t taken long before the soft hum and gentle pulse of the central column made her warm to the TARDIS in a way she couldn’t quite put into words. Somehow, whenever she was there, she felt at peace. Like nothing could touch her. Like she was safe. Like she and the Doctor could handle anything outside of those two doors, as long as they could always come here to retreat.  
  
She could see why the Doctor had made the TARDIS his home.  
  
He was sitting on the sofa at one side of the controls — the one that had seen better days, but that he never had the heart to do anything about ( _“I can’t just get rid of it, Rose,”_  he would whine, with those eyes as dark and rich as coffee.  _“It’s part of the ambiance!”_ ) — with the sonic screwdriver in his mouth and his glasses tangled up in his flyaway hair. With one hand he held open a book, so battered that Rose worried some of the pages would come loose if she so much as sneezed.  
  
His free hand was toying with something, and as Rose stepped closer, it glinted in the light. It was small, and silver, but other than that she couldn’t make it out. He pocketed it as she drew towards him.  
  
Smiling with his eyes, he removed the screwdriver and put down his book. “Hello,” he said, infused with warmth. “Have a nice rest?”  
  
A blush threatened to creep to her cheeks. She always felt so self conscious about her need for sleep. The episode at Christmas aside, the Doctor didn’t seem to need any kind of recharging whatsoever. He could just continue travelling at a hundred miles an hour, whether he was thinking or talking or running, and he’d never need to stop. Perhaps that was why he had two hearts, she had thought more than once: with just one, he may well have died from exhaustion.  
  
She smiled and said, “Yeah, thanks. Good as new.” Her smile turned into a grin, as enticing as she could make it. “Ready for the next adventure.”  
  
“Marvellous. I’ve just the place.” He hopped off the sofa and approached the controls, his hands flying to levers and buttons as though it were as easy to him as breathing. Rose, who by now knew that half of it was just for show, leaned against the railing and watched him as he worked. He was like an artist, she thought sometimes, like this; entirely in his element, that secret smile at his mouth, the proud curve of his back as he moved.   
  
He met her gaze above the controls, his eyes glinting. That small, mischievous smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. Rose couldn’t help but return it.  
  
After only a few moments, the TARDIS began to shake and shudder, the central column wheezing as the ancient, ethereal engines kicked into action. Rose loved this part. This was the part when they were literally travelling anywhere. Anywhen. No limits.  
  
Sometimes, the Doctor would ask her to describe the kind of place she wanted to visit, or the kinds of things she wanted to see and — to her disbelief — he very often delivered. Sometimes they would get dragged into or out of places, away from any kind of plan, and make their own adventure as they went. And sometimes, the Doctor planned something in Rose’s absence, and then couldn’t wait to show it to her. Those were her favourite times: the anticipation of what he had in mind to surprise or enchant her.  
  
She laughed above the sound of the TARDIS.  
  
“Where we going?”  
  
“You’ll see,” came the reply. “Just you wait, Rose Tyler. You want adventure? I’ve got that in spades.”  
  


-x-

  
  
The great, groaning sound of the TARDIS materialising echoed in every direction. She faded slowly in and out of existence, the motion unhurried, the effort astronomical. Around her lay a canopy of trees that glittered with unfallen flakes of ice. The ground, covered in snow, was perfectly untouched — like a blank canvas. The sky above was a rich, dark black, like velvet blanketing the night, pinpricked with thousands of tiny stars. Nothing stirred, but for the time machine making her entrance.  
  
And then, all of a sudden, she vanished.  
  
The snow lay untouched. The trees remained still. The planet lay silent.  
  
And the TARDIS was gone.  
  


-x-

  
  
The first sign that something was a little bit wrong was in the way the controls responded. He probably couldn’t say that at all times he knew  _exactly_  what he was doing, but most of the time, the Doctor was confident that when he said ‘jump’, his magnificent ship would say ‘how high?’. More or less. It got a bit tricky if she was in a mood, but there wouldn’t be any reason for that right now, he was sure.  
He threw an encouraging smile towards Rose for good measure before going back to concentrating on the coordinates he was flying to. Pull this lever, ring that bell, pump this, spin that, twist that — it was all very complicated.  
  
He stared up at the central column, at the glowing light and pulse of the engine, and frowned. “What’s the matter, old girl?” he said quietly, under his breath, so that Rose wouldn’t hear. Not that that was likely over the noise the TARDIS was making, but you couldn’t be too careful. When trying to impress someone, you don’t want them to think you don’t have the foggiest what’s going on. Not that he needed to impress Rose.  
  
The Doctor shook his head, and turned to his companion with words on the tip of his tongue. They never made it out. With a jolt, the TARDIS lurched, and threw him to the floor. It winded him, and it took him a moment to catch his breath. Without his hands at the controls, the entire console room began to tremble and shake, like she was coming apart. Rose managed to stay upright by clinging to the railing, but she shot him a concerned expression, her eyebrows pinched together in the centre as her eyes met his.  
  
He nodded, and clambered unsteadily to his feet.  
  
This wouldn’t do. It should not be  _this_  difficult to land on Itaxia III at the peak of its ice age. The place should have been deserted, but for a few secrets that waited for them in the shadows. Adventure, no problem. So what was the problem?  
  
The Doctor grabbed for the controls, desperately trying to steer his ship the way he had programmed her to go. But it was like trying to fight against an invisible current. His knuckles were white with the effort of keeping their course steady, his jaw tense. Rose appeared at his side and asked, over the noise, if everything was okay. He gripped his hands tightly onto two different levers and spoke through his teeth.  
  
“Not sure!” Steam hissed from somewhere unseen, and he moved for another lever. “She’s not… Responding…”  
  
“Can I help?”  
  
It was worth a shot. He nodded to his side. “Press that button, and hold the ratchet, and  _don’t_  let go until I tell you to!”  
  
Rose moved without further instruction, straight towards the controls he had described. Her face was set in the grimness of determination, her mouth thin, her eyes frowning but engaged. She looked up to the Doctor and met his eye. He nodded.  
  
Letting go of his own controls, he dashed around to the other side, spinning the dial that marked their trajectory through the time vortex. The ship rattled around him, the crashing and sparking making him jump. He stared into the monitor that stuck out over one side. Pulling his glasses from his head, the Doctor scanned the display, his eyes roaming from detail to detail, searching for an answer he knew he wouldn’t find. It was just error after error. It didn’t make any sense.  
  
Then, from nowhere, a haze of images flashed on the screen. Things he didn’t recognise: places, words, phrases. Things that shouldn’t be. The noise from the central column intensified. She was trying to materialise, he realised, his stomach sinking, a stone in a still pond, but it wasn’t where he had set. It wasn’t anywhere he could see.  
  
“Let go!” he shouted to Rose over the noise of the engines, but she didn’t hear him.  
  
He rushed to her side, pulling her free from the controls and settling his hands at her shoulders to steady her. He looked up at the column. He and Rose were dowsed in unnatural blue-green light, so intense it nearly blinded them to everything else.  
  
With a final lurch, the engines came to a stall. They were thrown to the floor. She would be laughing, if he was laughing. The instability happened sometimes, and wasn’t unusual. But he wasn’t laughing. He was panting.   
  
It was over.  
  


-x-

  
  
The grille of the TARDIS floor dug uncomfortably into her back. Rose lay in silence for a few moments, waiting for the Doctor to say something. Or do something. Like, leap to his feet with that manic look in his eye, grin at her, and tell her it was all part of the plan. Instead, when he didn’t, she propped herself up on her elbows and looked down at him.  
  
“Some adventurer you are,” she said, moving her fingers to his ribs in jest. He jerked away, but gave a weak laugh. “What happened?”  
The Doctor stilled and rubbed his hand over his face, casting his glasses askew. He puffed out a breath, apparently not in any hurry to get up. “I don’t know. It’s like she was… fighting me. Like we were being drawn off course. I mean the kind of energy I was struggling against, it was… ridiculous. Massive.” He was doing that thing where it was like he was talking to himself again. Rose humoured him. “That doesn’t make any sense at all. She should be fit as a fiddle, this TARDIS, and there’s no reason to avoid Itaxia III…”  
  
“That’s where we were going, right?” Rose guessed.   
  
The Doctor nodded without looking at her. He was staring up at the ceiling, his gaze half-vacant as he disappeared inside his own head. He did that sometimes. Part of being a genius, he’d told her, when she’d asked about it. Rose imagined it was like following the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, and she wasn’t always sure she wanted to join him. The Doctor’s mind sounded like a messy place at best, and that was coming from her.  
  
Without waiting for him, she got to her feet. She brushed her knees down, feeling him watch her. “Well then, Doctor. Something wants us here? Might as well go and see what it is, yeah?”  
  
He fixed her with a serious expression which, from the floor, probably didn’t have the effect he wanted it to. She bit down a smile.  
“You don’t even know what’s out there,” he said with concern. “It could be dangerous. It could be… terrible. I don’t even know where we are.”  
  
Rose grinned at him, and bit the tip of her tongue. “And?”  
  
It only took a couple of seconds for him to grin right back. When she offered him her hand, he took it, and he got to his feet all of a fluster. He was close enough she could smell his distinctly crisp scent. She didn’t know if he wore cologne — it seemed unlikely — but up close he always smelled like fresh washing, clean skin, and something that was undeniably masculine. It made her want to clear her throat and bite her lip.  
  
His gaze caught hers and it was full of his smile. "That's my girl," he enthused softly, their hands clasped, his breath ghosting her cheek. She felt his hand flex against her own. Rose swallowed.  
  
Then, after only a second, he darted for the exit like nothing had happened. Which, she reminded herself, it hadn't. Concealing a sigh, she moved to follow him, pushing away the thoughts that had sprung to mind. Thoughts about how it felt to be close to him, what his eyes said when he looked at her like that, how she wished just once he would... No, she had thought all those thoughts before, and it never did her any good.  
  
She plastered a smile to her face, focusing instead on the adventure at hand.  
  
“Now then,” he was saying, chipper as anything. He raised his eyebrows, and offered her his hand. “Let’s see what’s outside these doors.”


	2. The Taste of Sunlight

As it turned out, what was waiting for the Doctor and Rose outside those doors was a wall of blistering heat. 

Rose swore softly as they stepped out into it, and immediately took off her jacket. It was uncomfortably warm, the air almost suffocating as it pressed against her skin and throat, and she regretted her usual choice of jeans, t-shirt and trainers.

“You humans,” the Doctor commented as he pulled the doors shut behind them and pushed his hands into his pockets. “No temperature regulation. I don’t know how you do it.”

She glared at him.

The TARDIS had landed among a cluster of boulders. Their edges were jagged and uneven, worn away by wind, and the stark blue of the police box stood out conspicuously against their red sandstone faces. Underfoot the ground was spongy, not unlike wet sand, but it was dry as bone. The air held a twang to it almost like rust and, from above, the glare of two suns beamed down at them from a pastel blue sky. In the distance, ghostly and translucent, there hung the huge silhouette of a moon.

A path sloped away from them and wove down between the rocks, disappearing from sight around a corner. It was half cast in shadow, though that offered little protection from the intensity of the heat. The Doctor glanced enticingly at Rose. “Coming?”

She tried to fan herself with her hand as she trotted after him, but all it did was waft warm air into her face.

“You’re telling me you can’t feel this heat?” she asked as they walked.

“Well, I can feel it. But it’s just warm. Pleasant.” He turned his face up to the sun, eyes closed. “Mmm, nothing like a bit of summery warmth,” he declared.

Rose snorted as they set off again. “Yeah, well, there’s ‘summery’ and then there’s ‘my face is melting off’, and I can tell you which one I prefer. Just ‘cause you’re an alien.”

“Excuse me, Rose Tyler, I think you’ll find that on this planet you’re the alien here.”

“Oh, sure. Tell me that one again. How many faces have you had now?”

“Shut up.”

They continued on in amicable chat until the pathway eventually opened up, the towering boulders giving way to smaller rocks and debris. The Doctor didn’t recognise the planet, he said, which Rose thought was a first given his supposed ‘I know better than you’ knowledge. He didn’t find that comment very funny, but it afforded her a good chuckle.

They followed the track as it sloped downward, and marvelled at the view before them. A large expanse of dusty plains, sprawling cliff faces, and yawning valleys met their eyes. The TARDIS seemed to have parked in a small alcove off from a main track that wound around and around, circling down into what looked like some sort quarry below. Except for the wind, which blew hot sand against them, the place seemed empty. There was no movement, no greenery, and no birds in the sky.

All around the cliff faces there were caves, their dark mouths hungry and glinting in the sunlight, and an almost imperceptible hum hung in the air.

Rose swallowed as a sheen of sweat prickled at her forehead. She wiped her brow with her wrist, then shielded her eyes and squinted up at the Doctor. With nothing to protect them from the harshness of the suns, she felt particularly vulnerable out here on the cliff side.

“Do you really not know where we are?” she asked seriously, all humour gone from her voice. It was all very well teasing the Doctor, but his knowledge of planets and species and hidden rules and laws had got them out of many a tight spot in the past; he liked to be armed with knowledge, he used to say. It was better than any gun.

He gave a small shrug. “Well, I don’t know everything.”

“But… We were dragged here. Isn’t that bad?”

The Doctor’s mouth became a thin line, and a small crease appeared at the top of his nose, between his eyes. His gaze was fixed on the valley below. He didn’t answer her. Instead he pointed and said, “Maybe they know something we don’t.”

Rose turned and followed the line of his hand. Down in the valley, looking as small and insignificant as ants from where they stood, was a concentrated collection of what looked like tents. Tiny specks moved about them in the shade, and a metallic structure stood erected in the centre, all iron beams and stiff wiring. There was a large hole that had been excavated at the centre of the structure — situated as it was in the centre of the valley, it looked like the eye of a storm.

“Is that… Are those people?” Rose was flabbergasted. She could barely stand to be out in this heat as a temporary visitor. She couldn’t imagine actually staying out here.

“Could be. Could be. On the other hand, maybe they’re a very small species of the locals and they’re really not as far away as they look. Only one way to find out. Come along.”

They began to pick their way down the side of the cliff, stepping between loose stones and uneven sand as they went. Rose attempted to tie her jacket in such a way that she could shield her head and face from the onslaught of the suns, but it didn’t do her any good. She could feel her skin begin to prickle in the sunshine, the sensation of burning moving up her arms and across her face.

While the slope was gentle, the ground was relatively uneven, and it took a lot of her concentration not to misstep or lose her balance. More than once she found she’d misplaced her footing, and probably would have stumbled had the Doctor not been there to balance her, or to grab her if she veered a little too far. They went on in silence for a long time, Rose wondering why they couldn’t just ‘fly’ the TARDIS down into the pit below, and the Doctor looking thoughtful whenever she had the opportunity to glance in his direction.

About half way down, the path began to steepen.

The stones turned into rocks, the sand more treacherous, and Rose found it even more difficult to follow the line the path was taking. Infuriatingly, the Doctor seemed to be having no trouble at all. Often he would go on ahead, scout out the track, then make his way back to her. It would have been embarrassing if she hadn’t been so focused from trying not to pass out from heat exhaustion.

“I need… A rest… ” she panted eventually, after a lurch in the ground had meant she’d needed to jump down rather than just walk. “This heat…”

The Doctor looked at her with concern. “Rose, we shouldn’t stay out here if we can help it.” He tried to offer her a smile, though it was weak. “You know what they say about too much fun in the sun.”

She shook her head with a smile, then immediately wished she hadn’t. A surge of dizziness hit her from nowhere and, stumbling, she lost her balance. The Doctor moved for her but was just a second too late; he half caught her as she fell awkwardly, twisting as she went, and a slice of pain shot up through her leg as she went down.

The Doctor spoke something softly that she couldn’t quite hear — it may have been an insult, she couldn’t tell — and tried to help her to her feet.

Putting weight on her left foot, she stumbled again, bracing herself against the support of his hand as he held her. The pain in her ankle throbbed.

She looked up at the Doctor, whose face shielded one of the suns. “Sorry.” Rose grimaced. “I think I’ve done something.”

It wouldn’t have been so bad, but the combination of the pain and the heat and her dry throat and her sweat-soaked clothes made her long for the cool vents of the TARDIS, or even something as simple as a sip of water. Her head felt heavy and tense, her temples pulsing as though a needle passed right through them. Her limbs were sluggish, and sore. How long had they been out here?

Rose barely had time to comprehend the thought when the Doctor was moving to her side. Without word, he put an arm around her waist and puller her hand across his shoulder, taking the weight from her bad ankle and shifting it on to him. He pulled her to him, forcing her torso against his, and tilted his head to look at her.

From this angle, they were close. He didn’t look like this trek down had even made him break a sweat, the bastard.

“Wish I could have a temperature regulator thingy,” she half mumbled, attempting a smile. When had she got so tired? She was practically fighting to keep her eyes open.

The hand at her waist tightened, and the Doctor gave her a reassuring grin. “Nonsense. You don’t need one of those. You’ve got me! Let’s get you down to the base over there. I can see them much better from here. Definitely people, and not strange tiny locals. Won’t be long now. Just try to keep up, hm?”

And off they went, at a much slower pace than when they had started out.

-x-

 The Doctor could have kicked himself for not checking the ambient atmosphere before they left the TARDIS. In fact, no, he should have made Rose turn around and get changed the moment she had taken off her jacket. He’d thought, in his own stupid arrogant way, that she was just complaining for the sake of it. Except that that should have been what tipped him off, he realised when it was too late — she hadn’t actually complained about the heat at all. Not really.

By the time he realised that she was actually suffering under the light and heat of the two suns bearing down on them, it had been too late to go back. It was harder to push uphill than it was downhill, and Rose looked like she would have fallen over without the support. He didn’t even have any water to offer her, much to his dismay, the guilt of which tightened in his gut as though someone were twisting his intestines into a knot. The best he could offer her was a cheerful expression and the insistence that she would be fine.

He wasn’t sure it was true.

Their movements became slower and slower, Rose limping along with the Doctor helping her as much as he could. He even offered to carry her at one point, but the look she gave him made him think better of it. That was the problem with independent companions, he came to decide; they wouldn’t let themselves be taken care of.

About three quarters of the way down, and when the suns had started their respective descents in the sky above, Rose stopped walking. The Doctor nudged her, and made a joke. When he got no response, and he realised that she felt heavier against him than she had a few moments before, he felt the blood begin to drain from his face.

He glanced down at her. Her head lolled forward, her eyes closed, and he seemed to only be keeping her upright by pressing into her hip with his hand. This wasn’t good. Rassilon’s fury, why hadn’t he just taken them back to the TARDIS?

He stared back the way they had come, up the perilous mountain path, which looked so far away now. Then he stared down into the pit, where he was drawing closer to the encampment. He hoped they were friendly, whoever they were. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Shifting Rose’s weight, the Doctor manoeuvred her into his arms, scooping her up under her knees and at her neck. She would kill him when she woke up, he knew, but he’d rather that than have her die of heat exhaustion.

If she wakes up… a mean little voice said spitefully at the back of his mind — a voice that would taunt him with all his greatest failures, if he let it — but he gritted his teeth and pushed that voice away. Of course she would wake up. Heat was dangerous to humans, but she’d be all right. She was Rose.

The Doctor continued his way carefully down the path, picking his way between the rocks and pathway and shifting his centre of gravity whenever the road became too uneven. Carrying Rose was no easy feat, however, and it didn’t help that he was distracted by the slackness of her face. He’d seen her faint before — in their line of work this was hardly the first time — but it still set him on edge. Her face was a face built for endless smiles, laughing eyes, and the cheekiest of grins. It looked… unnatural to see her so without life, without vigour.

He was so distracted by her that it took him a moment to process the sound of machinery approaching.

He looked up in time to see a great metallic ground drill roving up and over the ground below. At least, he assumed it was a drill. The front was certainly large and spun with ferocity, and it chewed over the steep surface of the hill via a continuous track that had no trouble moulding to the path’s uneven shape.

The Doctor gripped Rose tightly in his arms. He didn’t have much in the way of ammunition if they proved hostile towards him; the sonic screwdriver and the psychic paper were all very well, but he couldn’t just reach into his pockets and have a rummage with Rose in his arms, could he?

Always one to meet a battle head on, he lifted his chin and stepped forward, towards the approaching drill. It was loud, the shaking noise of it reverberating off the sides of the cliff as it trundled up to meet him. Some welcome party this was going to be.

The machine drew to a stop a few meters away, and with it, so did the clanking of its engines. The Doctor watched with mild interest as a door from the side popped out and slid back, revealing the innards of the drill. A tall, stocky man hopped out, dressed in the most bizarre attire the Doctor could recall seeing for a while. It looked like he was wearing armour, and the glint of metal caught in the sun.

He had close-cut red-blond hair, a stern jaw, and piercing dark eyes. After him, and dressed much more sensibly, there was a slight, pale woman, with a stream of black hair in a ponytail. She wore cotton overalls, and had a pencil tucked behind her ear.

The Doctor stilled as they approached, holding on to Rose. They didn’t look dangerous.

“Who in the Maker’s name are you?” said the man, coming to a stop just short of the Doctor. “This place is supposed to be abandoned. It is abandoned. Our scans showed no life forms when we arrived.”

He had a gun slung over his shoulder: a large, unwieldy affair that made the Doctor pull a face. He wished Rose was conscious; that would have earned him a reprimand.

“Yes, right, um,” he started, fumbling over his words. It was fine, this always happened. “Oh, I’m from maintenance. They sent me down to… see how things are coming along. Check the machinery, the target operation, that sort of thing. I’ve parked just up there.” He turned and nodded with his head. “Thinking about it, I probably should have come straight to the base, shouldn’t I?” He tossed in a charming grin for good measure. “I have all the credentials, in my pocket. But as you can see my companion has had a bit of hard luck in this sunlight. I don’t suppose you could lend us a hand? Or just some water. That would be fine. Oh, er, maybe a bandage as well actually. I think she sprained her ankle on the way down.”

The look he was fixed with told him the man wasn’t impressed. Never had the Doctor seen an eyebrow arch so high, and he’d met Jack Harkness.

“How stupid do you think I am? We haven’t been in contact with our home operation in stellars, and you think you can just blunder in like some half-cocked rookie with a story like that? My cat tells better lies than you.”

The Doctor blinked. His gaze moved from the surly man to the slender woman, then back again. “You’re not even going to believe me just a little bit?” he asked eventually. “My friend really could do with some water.”

“Commander,” spoke the woman rigidly, unfastening a vial from her belt. “Permission to supply the newcomers with hydrogen dioxide, sir.”

The Commander met the Doctor’s gaze, his eyes dark. “Granted,” he said, although it sounded like the last thing he wanted to do.

Her face lit up as though he’d just told her she could have the rest of the year off. She was sweet, in an endearing way that Rose would probably hate. The Doctor hid a smile.

“Thank you,” he said earnestly as she approached them, and unfastened the vial. With the Doctor’s help, she lifted Rose’s head and poured some into her mouth, then flecked her brow and neck with the rest.

She gave a brief nod. “It’s no problem. We came here to see if we could help you. It was madness, thinking we saw the two of you coming down the cliff face. Impossible — we just had to come and see if it was true.”

“Of course you did,” the Doctor enthused, grinning. How he loved humans and their curiosity. “And, let me tell you… ”

“…Ashe.”

“Ashe. Lovely name. Anyway, I am eternally grateful that you did.”

From behind them, the Commander cleared his throat loudly.

With her back to him, Ashe gave a small smirk. “Don’t mind him,” she said softly, as she finished up the vial. “He just doesn’t like being lied to.”

“What makes you think I was lying?”

She looked uncertain, as though she wasn’t sure she should really be telling him anything. The Doctor gave her his best, ‘come on, you can tell me anything’ expression — one that had worked on Rose surprisingly well — but it was to no avail.

Ashe stood back, and motioned to the machine.

“Come on. Let’s get the two of you inside. We can go through introductions on the way.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all who read/commented/left kudos on my first chapter. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised! It meant a lot to me. 
> 
> I have three disclaimers to go with this chapter. First, apologies, it is once again a little slow. If I'd wanted to get down everything I'd planned for this chapter it would have been outrageously long, so it will have to wait. This leads into my second: this will probably now be longer than five chapters, if only because I ramble far too much and spend way too much time in Ten's head. Oops :D And third: I have decided to introduce a character from another series. It's not exactly a crossover, because I've pretty much borrowed just the character and re-shined him to make him fit in Who!Verse, but I missed writing him so here he is. As such, the Commander isn't mine, and is (much to my sadness) the property of Bioware. Cookies if you know it is! Okay, this is long enough now. Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> So... it's been a while since I've written anything. Even longer since I wrote fanfiction. And longer still since it was Doctor Who! What can I say - I missed it. Please be kind. This will, with any luck, be the first of five parts. Slow to start I'm afraid, but the pace will increase next time!


End file.
